these are a few of our favourite things…

Top 10 X Files Episodes (According to Racheal) No. 9

**** If you read the first post, you can skip this preamble…and just jump down to the gif.

I’d been working on this list as one long post, but it was shaping up to be so long that I thought, there’s no way that anyone will devote the time to reading it through, so I’ve broken it down into instalments…

Warning: This series of posts is going to deal with religion, religious themes and imagery. I don’t want to upset you all, so if you ‘don’t do’ religion and have a problem with reading about religious stuff, then let’s save your time and mine and you can just skip over this. Straight up, I’m not going to get tangled up moderating negative comments and whinges about religion – so if you’re feeling the urge, just don’t.

The reason that I have always loved the X Files is primarily because of the dynamic between Mulder and Scully but also for the supernatural content, which unapologetically explored ever widening concepts and boundaries from week to week. I watched the series on network television religiously when it was fresh and new. It was something my mother and I did together every week. I’ll always love this show, like a handful of others, for that reason alone. As I’ve gotten older though, and come back to the X Files, I am surprised about how it has spoken to me as an adult, often for the way it depicts religious themes, thought and discovery. I’m one of those folks that enjoys the spiritual and the idea of ‘belief’ being a lifelong journey. Like Mulder, I want to Believe, no matter how long it takes and I’m open to a range of different ideas and endless possibilities. I’m also one of those people that has no issue with faith and science sharing in my belief structure, in fact I believe the two, rather than being the mutually exclusive, probably have a far greater connection than the human mind can rationalise. Who says we need to know the secrets of the universe? Isn’t it far more fun to ponder them? The X Files did that – for 9 seasons and two films. It never attempted to answer many of the questions it asked, and you know, I was okay with that. I am, of course, tickled by the news that a reboot is in the works, which is what prompted me to write this post in the first place. Before we get acquainted with the new Mulder and Scully though, let’s revisit the Mulder and Scully we first fell in love with all those years ago…

(I’ll be starting at 10 and counting down to 1. Honourable mentions/ runners up will come at the end)

9. Bad Blood (season 5, episode 12): I think this is a fan favourite pretty much across the board, which is no surprise really, because it has everything: vampires, comedy, stakes through the heart, Mulder singing, Luke Wilson, that red-headed kid from The Sandlot… it’s just a winner. It’s also a personal favourite of Gillian Anderson, which gives it extra cred as far as I’m concerned – but that isn’t the reason it made it into my top ten when so many other equally awesome episodes did not. The reason I am including Bad Blood is because I like the fact that it uses lesser known elements of Vampire Lore, which are often overlooked or ignored in your more main stream vampire themed movies/books/television shows, in order to turn a done-to-death concept (the vampire hive living inconspicuously among everyday society) into something funny and different. The whole storyline with the seeds and the shoe laces is representative of the tiny details which make the X Files such a rich television series and which, I suspect, contribute to its enduring popularity in no small way.

On the whole, Season 5 presented some pretty solid offerings, Detour, The Post-Modern Prometheus, Chinga and Kill Switch are all amazing episodes leading up to this one, while Minds Eye, All Souls and The Pine Bluff Variant finish out the season strong. Overall, the only thing I found to be a drag about Season 5 was the whole story arc with Emily, Scully’s biological daughter.

Bad Blood comically offers the same story from the differing view points of Mulder and Scully, something that X Files fans had not seen before. My only criticism of this style would be that by the time Bad Blood came along, we were 5 seasons in so it could easily be inferred that Mulder and Scully knew each other pretty well, certainly better than their accounts lead us to believe at certain points. With that in mind, a lot of the misunderstandings and misrepresentations are done for the comic effect and overall, it is funny to see the differing views of Mulder and Scully and the characteristics they have that piss each other off.

Of course, there’s also the unforgettable rendition of Shaft…

Can you dig it? Yes, Agent Mulder, I can dig it, I can dig it any place, any time.